Graphene is a monolayer of sp²-bonded carbon atoms and attracts a lot of research interest because of its extraordinary properties. It is a potential candidate for applications in electronic devices, photonics and sensor technology. Currently, the most popular approach to prepare large areas of high quality graphene is chemical vapor deposition (CVD), in which a transition metal catalyst is exposed to gaseous hydrocarbons at high temperatures. We grow graphene with CVD on copper and nickel surfaces in a vertical cold-wall reactor at reduced temperatureat and very low pressures in the ultra-high vacuum range. Both, basic studies on the growth mechanisms and device fabrication for sensing applications are currently the focus of our research.